ears ago. ♪ >> jennifer: there's a slew of new swing state polls of likely voters. let's take a look at our electoral maps app right now. there are nine states in play those are the ones in yellow.

the president is otherwise leading absent those yellow states with 237 electoral votes to mitt romney's 191. in ohio a public policy polling survey shows that president obama is leading by 4 percentage points, plus yesterday a columbus dispatch poll had the president up nine points. so let's give those 18 electoral votes to president obama, brings him to 255 and romney 191. in florida a poll shows president obama leading by 1 percentage point. that's until the margin of error, so we'll keep those as a toss up at yellow. out in iowa -- again these are all polls out today -- in iowa there was a we ask america poll

showing president obama 44%. we'll give the president those electoral votes. things are looking better, though, for mitt romney in north carolina. in north carolina the arg poll shows romney leading 50-46%. and a ppp poll out today that shows it all even. so we'll keep that state in the toss-up column. there are 36 days until the election. this election actually despite everything you are hearing it is still up in the air. so don't count your chickens folk. back with us from washington, d.c. is peter fenn, and joining me here inside "the war room," duf sundheim. duf, let me start with you, because of all of the polls that

have been out lately there has been some movement of republican money. there have been in fact fox business news is reporting that some of mitt romney's new york donors are taking their money to the house and senate. and that trend reflects an increasing level of anxiety both with the nature of the romney campaign, and polls show president obama has a lead in swing states that some republicans think is insurmountable. do you think it's too soon? >> yes. you are going to see some anxiety, you are at a football game, and people start leaving for the exits way too early. >> jennifer: i think we're going

to have to follow the money. though. peter after all of the millions that have already been donated how important it is for campaigns to get new funds with a month to go especially if there is a feeling that you are in a ship that is sinking? >> it is really important because you really need that last-minute push and it's not just television advertising, or the big bucks for station voters. it's to open the offices for the last month in some of these critical states. they know the nine states and what they have to do they are going to pour money into those states. and there are really close senate and house races. so they may want to put the

money into those races. >> jennifer: i think that's a good point. if they think the presidential race is a little more iffy then they want to save the other races. there was a statement that said that the romney campaign now wants to frame this election as a choice and not a referendum which is something totally different. it says this election is a choice between two very different visions of our nation's future . . . interesting shift of strategy, isn't it? >> i think it means it is going to be more aggressive instead of trying to run the ball up the middle. i think they are going to be throwing passes. if you are making at it comparison, you have to show

what your policies are. >> but they have been quiet about this stuff -- >> that's right. and that's what i think they are going to do in the debate. >> jennifer: do you not think the shift to choice is a response to the fact that the election was becoming more of a referendum not on president obama but to mitt romney. yes. absolutely. so it does reflect their change in their strategy. the only thing is about the amount of money i don't think that will be the defining issue in this debate. >> jennifer: what do you think, peter? do you think the obama campaign is going to agree that this campaign is a choice of very very different views about where the country is headed? >> well i think it may be a little bit of rope a dope going on here from the romney side.

they really still want this to be about barack obama. you are going to hear i think at this debate -- and duf is correct -- you have will hear more from romney about himself and make himself a little bit more likable, but you will hear about his policies for the future. but the main thing i think these folks are going to concentrate on is if you like the last four years, boy oh boy you will love the next four. >> jennifer: right. >> they will try to make this more about the president. >> jennifer: what i think is going to be interesting on this, duf is if mitt romney is going to focus on the things that truly have been debunked before then he is going to be in a very

awkward position, when he says he is going to prove that what the president said is a lie. >> i think really what is more important is that he is going to point out, look, president obama promised us that unemployment wouldn't be this high -- >> jennifer: that's another lie. he didn't promise that it was going to be 8% or less -- >> just christine roamer his chief economic -- >> jennifer: but that's the given up four pants on fire pinocchio rating as well. >> i think the american people understand when he was selling the stimulus program, he was not promising we would have more than 8% unemployment. he did say that health costs would go down and it's not.

>> jennifer: all right. you know we can go on about this. duf sundheim and peter fenn, thanks for joining us, peter from washington, d.c. and up next they say our flaws are a gift. well for that i can say they have never taken part in a political debate. that's next on "the war room."

you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep you'd be targeting stocks to

trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin. trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account.

rick, again, i'm speaking -- i'm speaking -- i'm speaking -- you get 30 seconds -- the way the rules work here is i get 60 seconds, and you get 30 seconds to respond -- >> and you say you knew -- >> anderson -- >> are you just going to keep talking? let me finish what i have to say. >> jennifer: oh, god, i love debates. have you eh seen mitt romney so animated. i always figured he was kind of

a stickler for the rules guy, but to go so far as to kind of tattle on rick perry. and what about the time that president obama was kurt with hilary clinton. >> i don't think i am that bad. >> you are likable enough hilary. >> thank you. >> jennifer: there has been endless speculation about who is going to do better and of course the fact is they both have weaknesses when it comes to debating, and how do they get over those weaknesses. joining us tonight for more on how we can expect the to perform is alan schroeder. he is a professor of journalism at northeastern university and author of "presidential debates: 50 yours of high risk tv".

love it! welcome inside "the war room" professor. >> thank you very much. i wanted to start by saying can i call you jennifer the way that sarah palin -- >> only if you wink when you do that. >> right. right. >> jennifer: you absolutely can, let's start with the candidate's weaknesses. you have said that president obama has several weaknesses. he may be overly cautious rusty, out of practice and testy. any of those fatal flaws? >> not necessarily unless they are magnified in a way that make them a fatal flaw. but related to all of that is this idea that i don't think he is that excited about being in the debate, and i think that's typical for a lot of candidates and yet that is a problem. because when you are happy to be

there, that's when you turn in a good performance. it's when you are worried about feel like you are stepping through land mines that things can go wrong for you. >> jennifer: who wants to be in this high-risk, high-profile tense environment? nobody loves that. >> no but i think certain people rise to the level of the performance. bill clinton you always got the feeling that he was very happy to be there. >> jennifer: it makes me smile thinking about it. you also say that governor rom any has a few of these flaws as well. he could be overly cautious he lacks spontaneity. he appears awkward and whiny. and he might be boring. if you were comparing the flaws of either one of those, which

would you rather be? >> i think i would rather be obama. however, i do think they are fairly evenly matched. and in some ways there are similarities. i see both men as being men more about the intellectual side of things and not the emotional side of things. nay are both a little bit aloof. but the clip we looked at where mitt romney loses it about the rules, that was the most impassioned we have seen that. but isn't it interesting he is not getting passionate out of issues, he is getting passionate because he feels like somebody is cheating him out of his time. >> jennifer: exactly. i'm fascinated by this though because speaking of process, the

romney camp has said they are going to be fact checking the president during the debate. when somebody is accused of lying in a debate, you suggest doing the opposite of what elizabeth warren did recently. let's watch that. >> i think character is important. as you know i think what you are refer iffing to is the fact that professor warren claimed she was a person of color, and she is not. >> senator brown wants to raise an issue about my color, i'll lay it out there. when i was growing up these were the stories about my heritage. and i never asked for any documentation.

>> jennifer: what was wrong with her answer? >> here is the problem you get into. if you try to defend everything that is thrown at you during the debate, then automatically you are playing defense and wasting the time you would like to be using to make a proactive statement just reacting to what the other person is saying. so i think if somebody hits you with a lie in a debate you have to let the fact checker do some of that heavy lifter for you. when you were in the debate did you feels like you could respond? >> jennifer: when you are in a debate and somebody has said something completely false about you, you think do i want to spend my time responding to that craziness, which gets me really mad because they have done this

or spend my time with my proactive agenda. there are some things you may want to respond to but when should you use your valuable debate time to actually do a response to an attack. >> i think when it's to your benefit to do that, if you can turn that around and make the other person who is making the charge look bad, that's when you do it. but it is so tricky. the thing that is so interesting about debates is you are in the moment. there is so much pressure, so much going on and the clock is ticking, and you have to make judgments on the fly and you just do what you can at that moment, right? >> jennifer: right. i want to get your prediction who is going to win on wednesday. >> it's a live tv debate. i think i would be out of my gourd if i told you who was

going to win. i'm not in the prediction game here. >> jennifer: oh, you are letting me down, man. my prediction you are going to have your popcorn and you are going to enjoy wednesday night. that's for sure. >> you better believe it. >> jennifer: thank you so much for joining us inside the war room "presidential debates: 50 years of high risk tv." if mitt romney told a lie in the forrest, would the main stream media hear it? we'll talk to eric boehlert next. a story you can only find in "the war room." presidential debate. with unrivaled analysis and commentary. >> you're going to hear that used as a major talking point. (vo) the only network with real-time reaction straight from the campaigns and from viewers like you. >>now that's politically direct.

♪ lord, you got no reason ♪ ♪ you got no right ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i find myself at the wrong place ♪ [ male announcer ] the ram 1500 express. ♪ ♪ it says a lot about you. ♪ ♪ in a deep, hemi-rumble sort of way. guts. glory. ram. you disgust me. prove it. enough is enough.

d-con baits are specially formulated to kill in one feeding. guaranteed. d-con. get out.

♪ >> jennifer: with mitt romney trailing in many of the polls the republicans have spent the last week not praising his policies or trying to change people's minds. they actually were instead criticizing many of them, the pollsters themselves calling them a bunch of left-wing cheerleaders saying they were skewing the numbers. this week started with more of the same, only now they have moved on to beating up on their favorite scapegoat of all time the main stream liberal media. >> i think it kind of goes without saying that there is a definitely a media bias.

we expected media bias going into this. >> jennifer: i say all of this knowing that i'm here at current tv which is of course a progressive channel, but we don't pretend to be balanced in that way. anybody with objectivity might actually think the regular media is biased in the other direction. the top selling newspaper in this country is the wall street journal. and that paper now has romney advisors writing for their op-ed page. the journal published 23 pieces from ten romney advisors without ever disclosing their ties to the campaign in the paper. and fox news which is the highest-rated cable news

channel, they do the same with commentators acting as independent analysts. for more on the right-wing's claim of media bias. i'm joined by eric boehlert, senior fellow of media matters for america. he comes to us from new york. welcome back inside "the war room." >> thanks for having me. >> jennifer: do you think that the right-wing sort of denial of the polls -- we'll start there -- >> right. >> joy: has worked to rally their base? >> i guess. it's a pretty crummy way to try to win a national election. >> joy: when you don't have anything else, man. >> as chris christie said when you are complaining about the press, you are usually behind. i mean i'm paraphrasing. this is an outgrowth of the

liberal media allegation. the press is out to get. republicans. so they have branched out and made it bigger and better in their minds. now pollsters have become part of this vast conspiracy. the liberal media has gotten all of these independent pollsters to cook their books. they even have the fox news pollster, and today rasmussen has obama up three points. so now they have everybody. it really is a vast conspiracy because no matter what direction you turn there's just more proof that it's nonsense. i mentioned the murdoch, wall

street journal poll. they have done nine swing-state polls, and obama has won all of them. that tells you obama is probably doing pretty well in those states. you don't need these dilutional fantasy. but that's where the right-wing is. >> jennifer: we did a bit of this on the show on friday to look at the polls and look at the fox news polls too, which also said that obama was ahead, that left-wing rag. but media matters has a right-wing competitor, which is the media research center and there was an open letter to the media. it says . . .

>> joy: what is your take on that, and the work that the media research center does. >> i don't think much of the center because they don't provide a single bit of research. they could have written that same letter in 2000 they never have real evidence to back it up. i believe there was an ongoing -- you know, analysis of the campaign coverage during the winter. they were looking at all of the primary candidates and guess who had the worst coverage out of all of the candidates and barack obama? barack obama had by far the

hardest media coverage. so they sit around and four years they claim the media is rigging the election. here is my question how did george bush get elected twice if the media rigs the election. >> jennifer: but you have to admit that somebody who is not affiliated with either side of the aisle, that look at this and the right is complaining, the left is complaining. where do they debt an honest assessment? >> campaigns that are not doing well, get bad press. if you run bad campaigns, you get bad prez -- press.

just watch the news itself. unless it's fox news most of the coverage is very straightforward, and you can tell who is telling the truth and who isn't. >> jennifer: eric boehlert, senior fellow of media matters for america, thank you so much for joining us inside "the war room" this evening. coming up digging up dirt on mitt romney is a hard job but somebody has to do it, and that's brett ehrlich. he's next.

jennifer speaks truth to power. >>the bottom line is we need an amendment. >>now it's your turn. connect with "the war room" jennifer granholm. >>it's a call to arms. make your voice heard.

♪ and now it's not just the obama campaign pulling out all of the stops to trash mitt romney. it is also the guy who takes out his trash. brett ehrlich has more. shhhh, brett's talking now. >> mitt romney is still taking it from all sides over this 47% remark. most recently city worker's union, ask me released a video where mitt's garbage man tells him to shove it. it's not just mitt romney's attitude. it's the stuff that mitt throws away that frustrates him. he throws away money because it

is too wrinkly. >> picking up 15 16 tons by hand that's takes a toll on your body. >> and the romney trash is particularly heavy. they throw out about 500 disposable cups per year, but the romneys throw away golden disposable cups. >> jennifer: thank you all for joining us here in "the war room." 36